The Tennessee Titans have essentially ended the Will Levis era, benching him in favor of Mason Rudolph. The TItans will unfortunately enter an offseason needing to address the quarterback position despite slim pickings expected to be available. Regardless of the path followed, general manager Ran Carthon must avoid repeating the franchise's previous mistakes.
To do that, they need to be creative, and any solution they come up with needs to be one that has a quick expiration date. The 2026 NFL Draft class is going to be loaded with quarterback talent, and committing to a quarterback now would be like drinking saltwater in the middle of the ocean. Sure, you may feel better for an instant in the short term, but you are dooming yourself.
In the wake of benching Levis, two new quarterback options have already emerged ahead of the offseason.
It turns out Levis wasn't the only quarterback to get benched on Tuesday. The Atlanta Falcons made the surprising decision to bench Kirk Cousins as well. Cousins has struggled lately, and the Falcons look ready to start the Michael Penix Jr. era, but they are left with the question of what to do with sizable contract they committed to the veteran in March.
Adam Schefter broke down the financials yesterday, claiming the Falcons have two options. They can either cut him and incur $65 million in dead money, or they could trade him, and the acquiring team would take on $27.5 million.
The math:
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) December 18, 2024
🏈If the Falcons were to cut Kirk Cousins prior to the start of the 2025 league year, they would have $65 million in dead money.
🏈If they were to trade him, the $27.5M base salary guarantee would transfer over to the acquiring team, so then the Falcons would just be…
While the NFL doesn't allow teams to make salary dump trades, a creative GM can get around that. The Titans are projected to have around $63 million in cap space for 2025, and they can manipulate the cap to make that number much higher if they need to.
Cousins isn't the only veteran QB that seemingly became available. Teddy Bridgewater was hired as the head coach of his high school football team before the 2024 season and promptly led that team to a state championship in Florida, which is a monumental achievement within that competitive state.
While that seemed like the perfect transition from retired player to coach, Bridgewater let it be known that he was planning an NFL comeback for 2025.
Is Bridgewater the answer to the Titans prayers? No, but he is a veteran quarterback who has been a 2:1 TD:INT ratio guy his whole career and he understands how to operate a pro system. While it might not sound exciting, Bridgewater is sort of Mason Rudolph-lite with higher upside, and that's the realistic path the Titans should be trying to follow in the offseason.
The Titans need to acquire a quarterback who can operate the offense and prove that Brian Callahan has installed a scheme that can be successful with better QB play.
In the past, Bridgewater has done a great job feeding playmakers. Receivers like D.J. Moore, Courtland Sutton, Noat Fant, and Tim Patrick have had near-career seasons with him as their QB.